Feb. 11, 2018: 6th Sunday B
Feb. 11, 2018: 6th Sunday B
Have you ever been misjudged or made a hasty judgment without knowing all the facts? I’m sure you can think of an unhappy experience where someone misjudged you or your intentions. Such an experience happened to Vinicio Riva a few years ago when he boarded a public bus. He found an empty seat, but before he could sit down, the man sitting next to the empty seat snapped at him, “Go away! Don’t sit next to me.” Startled, Vinicio wanted to respond back, but he decided to keep quiet like the rest of the passengers who witnessed this indignation yet did nothing. Vinicio had long been accustomed to the unkindness of strangers, for he suffered from a skin disease which left him covered with tumors and sores all over his face and body.
How would you react to such a person if he attempted to sit next to you on a plane or at a movie theater? Would you move away or be grossed out? Jesus experienced such a person in today’s gospel when a leper approached him for healing. Imagine a person covered with skin lesions with large lumps and bumps and smelling of foul odor. Such a person experiences isolation and desolation from their loved ones and the community. In fact, we probably can’t imagine what a leper looks like (and smells like) because most of us have not seen a person afflicted with leprosy. However, we can understand why such a person would seek healing and seek to rejoin his family and community. Jesus did the unthinkable; he reached out to the man and touched him, defying the social and religious norms and shocking those who were witnessing this unexpected gesture of kindness. Jesus demonstrated to those around him, that the Heavenly Father loved this man and the healing power of the Father can restore a person to wholeness and newness of life. I venture to say that we cannot imagine what that leper felt when he was touched and healed by Jesus. He was so excited by his healing that he went and told everyone about what happened to him. This healing allowed the leper to return to his community. The healing was not only for the leper, but also for his community who judged by appearance and lacked compassion.
Going back to Vinicio… Vinicio and some of his towns folk traveled to Vatican City for the morning public audience held by Pope Francis. Vinicio sits in a wheelchair because he has difficulty staying on his feet for long. When Pope Francis walked through the aisle greeting people, Vinicio hoped that he could at least shake the Pope’s hand. Then the unthinkable happened. Pope Francis walked straight to Vinicio and embraced him tightly. Vinicio described the incident, “Pope looked at me as if he was digging deep inside, a beautiful look that I would never have expected. He didn’t have any fear of my illness. He embraced me without speaking...I quivered. I felt a great warmth… I felt I was returning home ten years younger, as if a load had been lifted.”
The Pope’s gesture of compassion moves us to consider our own calling. Pope Francis tweeted, “Lord, teach us to step outside ourselves. Teach us to go out into the streets and manifest your love… True charity requires courage: let us overcome the fear of getting our hands dirty so as to help those in need.”
As we approach the beginning of Lent, let us ask Our Lord for the grace to open and welcome those of all walks of life, especially the poor, weak, and vulnerable. How can we ever completely understand each other when we have all walked different roads, with different life experiences? We can’t. Yet we can try. We need to ask Our Lord for spiritual healing so that we can see with his eyes and his compassion, especially those whom we ignore or do not give a second thought to their plight.
